Taiwan PCB industry shifts to high‑end
AI server growth and edge‑AI demand are reshaping Taiwan’s PCB industry toward high‑end capacity and advanced materials, not just cyclical recovery. That structural shift matters for suppliers of next‑gen Apple Silicon boards and high‑speed interconnects (digitimes.com).
Zhen Ding disclosed a two‑year capital plan of about NT$100 billion to expand advanced HDI, high‑layer‑count (HLC) and substrate capacity, and said AI‑related products now account for roughly 70% of its revenue. (digitimes.com) Earlier public guidance showed Zhen Ding committing ~NT$30 billion in capex for each of 2025 and 2026 to build new plants in Thailand, Huai’an (China) and a Kaohsiung AI campus for flexible and high‑performance boards. (ic-pcb.com) Unimicron raised its 2025–26 capex and flagged tight supply of high‑speed ABF substrates, while confirming it supplies IC substrates and boards to hyperscalers and major OEMs including Nvidia, Intel and Apple. (taiwannews.com.tw) Multiple industry trackers estimate specialty copper foils and HVLP‑class laminates will cover only a fraction of 2026 AI‑server demand (as much as a ~50% shortfall for upgraded HVLP4 foil), driving extended lead times for high‑frequency CCL and specialty foil products. (globalsmtasia.com) Taiwan vendors have reported persistent shortages in T‑glass fiberglass, drill bits and copper foil that pushed substrate and board makers to raise prices and reprice customer contracts in late‑2025/early‑2026. (technewstube.com) COMPEQ (2313.TW) and Zhen Ding (4958.TW), both named on Apple‑supply chain lists, have publicly increased investment and production allocation while analysts model higher margin capture from server/AI board mixes versus legacy smartphone volumes. (ic-pcb.com) Unimicron’s chairman projects that boards serving AI applications will exceed smartphone board market value by 2029, and market research firms project the ABF substrate market rising toward roughly US$8.9 billion by 2029 as AI and HPC demand scales. (news.tvbs.com.tw)
